As with many other quotes from Jesus, I believe that this one has several different meanings. I believe one of them to be that when we make survival and things related to survival the most important thing in life, we will waste our life.
This is especially true in the times that we are living in right now. People’s survival instinct make them stockpile money way past when they have enough to get them through hard times. It makes us live in constant fear of the future, fight each other for resources and do all kinds of things to preserve our lives. It makes us agree to things that we normally never would. Something that we have seen a lot of during the past three years and which we will in all likelihood see more of in the near future.
The survival instinct causes us to live in fight or flight mode, in a society where the natural threats are gone. And instead the emotional energy is stored in our bodies as tensions. It’s what turns those that we love into enemies, because our brains interpret them as threats to our lives when we get into conflicts with them. It’s what causes us to see other people as enemies and competitors in general. The survival instinct hinders us from coming together and cooperate, instead of “looking out for number one”.
We do not need this anymore. In abundant countries there is no such scarcity anymore. And this is not even a necessary state in poorer countries, even if a change is a few steps further away in those.
I think that it’s hard to completely get away from the fear of death. Even if I know that life goes on after I die and I have a strong belief that I will find something wonderful on the other side, the unknown is still scary. But if I let this fear guide my actions, I will probably be even more afraid in the future, when I look back at an inauthentic life, where I may have acted against my conscience to preserve it.
If I on the other hand live after what I truly value in spite of the dangers that it may entail, chances are that when the end comes, no matter when it comes, I can look at my life as meaningful. If you want to see a good story about this, I would recommend the movie Million Dollar Baby.
And I don’t think that it’s ever too late for this. Sure, our individual lives come with their limitations. But no matter where we are, we can always start choosing to say no to survival mode. Not in a way where we start taking risks. It could be that. But what I’m talking about first and foremost, is to stop taking actions out of a fear of dying.
Many people are losing their hope of the world. On an individual level we can always surrender to the present moment. Accept what is and what the future may bring. Maybe this is what we need to do on a collective level as well. Maybe we can flip the dystopia that we see looming on the horizon. Maybe if we stop trying to desperately hold on to our lives, we can turn the dystopia into a utopia.
Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash
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